69 Comments

Actually I will be at the game tonight in Raleigh, I live just north of Charlotte….Weekes had his best years of his career in Carolina, definately that magical 5-6 weeks and rode them to the finals. Great comeback last night. I ran to the bathroom, came back and we score 3. As I go tell my wife what happened while I was in the john, she says, well then just put a TV in the bathroom. A light bulb went off, what a great idea. May have to go look into this….

Over here in Europe it is very often the case that the press and media are accompany sport teams on road trips on their respective team charters enabling them as close as possible for writing the daily articles ??? When I read the blog of Steve Zipay as one the most diligently writer, he seemed to be on his own on the west coast swing !

The Rangers are traveling only with players, coaching staff, medical staff ???

And is it right that the official carrier is Continental Airlines ????

I really like to know as much as possible about this stuff because I want to compare with over here!

In previous years I was twice on the team charter of my favourite team even just as a fan and we had a DC 10 with almost 300 people with all the team members, press, tv and radio analysts, vip guests and even the fans…:)

For once i agree with renneys change. Playing Weekes is the smart move, Henrik can use the rest, and you dont want Kevin to get ice cold. This is the perfect time to play him. Besides Weekes hasnt been bad this year.

SPZITO75 – definitely wire the bathroom for HiDef but at the same time, get yourself TIVO/DVR so you can pause it and not miss any action… I never knew how much I’d love it until I got it, now I’m even looking to hit pause while watching the one TV in the house that doesnt have it, it’s a way of life!

As for the Rangers… wish they’d just get Pock into a game once in awhile, nice to see Hossa get involved and hope whatever is going to happen with Kasparaitis gets settled before it becomes a distraction to the rest of the team. His complaining rubbed me the wrong way.

For those of you unfamiliar with independent George, here is a definition from Wikipedia:

“Independent George
George views himself as being made up of two distinct psyches: “Independent George” and “Relationship George.” The latter is the tedious personality he feels compelled to adopt within the context of his personal relationship with women (Susan Biddle Ross being the woman in question) in order to maintain that relationship. George does not care for the dull persona of Relationship George, viewing it as a sort of prison. In contrast, Independent George is a reflection of George’s true nature and the George he could be within the sanctuary of his life away from Susan. Independent George is made up of several important subpersonas: Movie George, Coffee Shop George, Liar George, and Bawdy George. The persona of Independent George is the George Jerry knew and grew up with.

Independent George is nearly killed in the episode, “The Pool Guy.” When Elaine begins hanging out with Susan, George panics because he feels his “worlds are colliding” (George says that “a George divided against itself cannot stand; if Relationship George is allowed to infiltrate George’s sanctuary, he will kill Independent George”). Ultimately, the crisis is abated when Susan “breaks up” with Elaine because she finds the triviality of the group’s interactions unappealing.”

mama`s boy its great isnt it…all the tings I never wanted to know about fellow Rangers fans..and all in one place!! LOL But in all seriousness, SAM…you have set up a GREAT blog and I say from the amount I ready from around the NHL, you have the best stories and the way you write them just beyond awsome…good job and keep it up! Also…who do I e-mail to tell them that wahtever you pay is..well simply isnt enough…you should get a raise :)

Hey Doodie Machetto,
I have read a few different sources stating that the rangers have thrown Kasper’s name out there to see if there is any interest and aparently there isn’t. I myself can understand this because he is making 2.9 million and he is 34 and if people think Broduer looks like an old 34 from what I’ve seen from kasper, dito.

4Rangers.,..I ahve seen both numbers…I think the 2.9 is his cap number since they average the contract value…I tihnk he got a good raise from last year on his contract…so although his paycheck is over 3 mill his cap hit is 2.9…Im just guessing…but that could be why there is a varying number out there

he signed a 6-year, $24 mill. contract. the new CBA reduced that to the current $3.268 per year. the cap figures are second fiddle. the amount of his paycheck is what matters to mgmt. of teams that might want him.

Your cap number is not your salary that year, just the average of your contract length. So it does make a difference whether he is being paid 2.9 and his avg is 3.28 or he is being paid 3.28 and his average is 2.9. It is also important to note that salary already paid to him wouldn’t count against another teams cap if he were to be traded, so that takes out a quarter of that, about 750k-800k depending on which number is correct. Granted, this is all just spit in the ocean when you consider how entirely too much money it is in comparison for what you get in return.

I think that later in the season, when he is cheaper because most of his salary for the season will have been paid by the Rangers, some playoff bound teams looking for veteran depth would be interested. Otherwise, some teams may pluck him up now for half of his salary on waivers.

yea, did you notice the other two who looked foolish, Rachunek and Ozolish. Rachunek do you think you need to rush toward a guy and and than take a weak poke at the puck while the guy dekes around you and Ozolish looks like the scare crow on skates.

Cole is the most unsportsmanlike player in the game right now. Every time he is near an enemy player, he dives. I saw it last year to the nth degree (before he was out with that injury) and i saw it again 3 friggin times including the bs penalty they called on malik (cole actually wrapped his hand around malik and took malik down).

not that I am defending Malik but at the end of the period when the skater tried stick handling around Malik he had the correct fundemental on how to play defense. Malik looked him in the eye and took him off the puck in stead of trying to play the puck. Unfortunately the big goof tried to give the skater a big love hug and got called for a penalty.

yes, some of the blame goes on weekes on that goal also. He gave up a very soft redirect rebound right to a wide open carolina skater in fron of the net but than if rachunek didn’t make such a dum move when he weakly swiped at the puck he would have been there to che ck him but instead rachunek took himself out of position. I have to admit, when I saw malik’s penalty as it happened i thought it was a soft call. I’m not liking some of the refereeing this year, some of the crews out there are terrible.

Why is he on the team again?
I love his style of defense. Skate backwards, avoiding all body contact like the plague, waving his stick around a little bit, giving the opposition player as much room as he wants to get towards the net and make a play. He puts pressure on nobody.

hey Inferno, I don’t see many carolina games but I think you have something there about this guy. Cole got sandwich between to ranger players and than fell to the ice like he was shot by somebody in the cheap seats and than laid on the ice for few seconds crying to the referee. I think now I know why somebody last year tried really hurting him by driving his head in to the boards.

Yeah but -9 in 12 games in 2003-2004. that was right after their fire sale. you can’t hold that against him. He’s -6 in 17 games this season (including tonight). That’s not terrible for a third string defenseman.

I can only go by what I see and all i know is everytime caro;ina is working the boards down low and getting scoring oppurtunities I notice that Rachunek and Ozolish are on the ice. I have nothing personal against these guys but if your going to tell me that pock is worst than these guys than why even have pock on the team.

Coles diving is something if noticed and hated about him since ive seen him play. One of the few non agitators i would be happy to see get injured. I cant stand guys that play that way. Id take a million Darcy Tuckers before I take 1 Cole.

At least Tucker earns his penalties against by riling up the other team. This jerk just dives every 5 seconds. I hate the guy with a passion.

to me this is a problem when carolina shoots the puck and weekes makes the save and he can’t control the rebound and carilina charges the net and they start hacking away and what do i see, i see peter Prucha battling two guys while Ozolish is standing there being a spectator until he finally bear hugs one of the guys and I noticed another ranger behind weekes pratically in the nets watching all this (rachunek), now you got to be kidding me. I am truthful when I tell you I didn’t like the rangers geting ozolish last year when i read he was in re-hab and out of shape and there is nothing that will change my mind. He looks like the scare crow in the wizzard of Oz on skates. if you remember the scare crow he had wobbly legs. I didn’t know anything about rachunek at the time when the rangers signed him in the off season but from what I have seen i don’t like but i guess for now this is what we have.

Yeah but -9 in 12 games in 2003-2004. that was right after their fire sale. you canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t hold that against him. HeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s -6 in 17 games this season (including tonight). ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not terrible for a third string defenseman.”

He was -9 LAST YEAR. Not 3 years ago in 2003-2004, what are you talking abuot?

-6 in 17 games is terrible. Unless of course you think -30 for the year is satisfactory. I’d like to think most of us strive for higher standards.

Inferno,
he did, last year in the middle of the season somebody, I don’t remember who, check him from behind and almost broke his neck. I’m not 100% sure but I think he missed the remainder of the season.

MIKE: Also you must have missed the attempten foram to the head of Staal, and the huge hit he had last night…and the fact on the goal tonight that a Rangers forward was coasting back around NOONE waiting for the offensive opertunity, If that forward had followed the late man in there would have been no goal, many things happend on that play, to blam any one playing is just ignorace IMHO. Also on Rachunek, he was a plus 2 last night, and i dont lklike teh
+/- stat just because you could be across the ice doing your job on your man and the goalie could put it in his own net being stupid and you would be a minus…and the other team would have all pluses so its not a reliable stat.

Tom G, it was Orpick or whoever from the Pens, and it DID break his neck I though…at elast a fratcure of some sort I thought…but yeah, and I tihnk it was one of those were he kinda turned…but I might be wrong int the turning part

I know some people are going to think I’ve lost my mind but I wonder if renney gave one of his pep speaches to rachunek between periods 2&3 because he is playing alot better in the 3rd period. If I can only see some consistency.

Mike: Most of Rachunek’s – came in the first five games of the season, it’s getting much better. Since the game at Buffalo (fifth game), he is a -2, including tonight. Include the trend that his +/- is getting better, maybe he’ll finish the season even, which is again, not bad for a third string defenseman.

Anyways, im going to give the team a pass on this one. IM one of the most critical guys out there on this team, but i think they just looked tired. and they were playing the defending champs, and they played them to a draw till about 6 minutes remaining.

Personally I don’t get George. How can two things be equally good? You always have one favorite, right? You lie to people around you and say that you think something is funny, because it seems like normal to think that way.